Tiny Brain-Like Computer Created

The image demonstrates the design of an artificial brain built using a nano-brain reported in this issue of PNAS. Several molecular nano-brain are arranged in a way to work as powerful as our central nervous system. Numerical digits and alphabets float across the architecture demonstrating a matrix generated during a real-time operation similar to the Hollywood blockbuster The Matrix.

The most powerful computer known is the brain, and now
scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how
the brain works.

So
far the device can simultaneously carry out 16 times more operations than a
normal computer transistor. Researchers suggest the invention might eventually
prove able to perform roughly 1,000 times more operations than a transistor.

This
machine
could not only serve as the foundation of a powerful computer, but also serve
as the controlling element of complex gadgets such as microscopic doctors or
factories, scientists added.

The
device is made of a compound known as duroquinone. This molecule resembles a
hexagonal plate with four cones linked to it, "like a small car,"
explained researcher Anirban Bandyopadhyay, an artificial intelligence
and molecular electronics scientist at the National
Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan.

Duroquinone
is less than a nanometer, or a billionth of a meter large. This makes it hundreds
of times smaller than a wavelength of visible light.

The
machine is made of 17 duroquinone molecules. One molecule sits at the center of
a ring formed by the remaining 16. The entire invention sits on a surface of
gold.

How it works

Scientists
operate the device by tweaking the center duroquinone with electrical
pulses from an extremely sharp electrically conductive needle. The molecule and
its four cones can shift around in a variety of ways depending on different properties of the pulse —
say, the pulse's strength.

Since
weak chemical bonds link the center duroquinone with the surrounding 16
duroquinones, each of those shifts too. Imagine, for instance, a spider in the
middle of a web made of 16 strands. If the spider moves in one direction, each
thread linked to it experiences a slightly different tug from all the others.

In
this way, a pulse to the central duroquinone can simultaneously transmit
different instructions to each of the surrounding 16 duroquinones. The
researchers say this design was inspired by that of brain cells, which can
radiate branches out like a tree, with each branch used to communicate with
another brain cell.

"All
those connections are why the brain is so powerful," Bandyopadhyay said.

Since
duroquinone possesses four cones, each molecule essentially has four different
settings. Since the central molecule can simultaneously control 16 other
duroquinones, mathematically this means a single pulse at the machine can have
4^16 — or nearly 4.3 billion — different outcomes.

In
comparison, a normal computer transistor can only carry out just one
instruction at once, and only has two settings — 0 and 1. This means a single
pulse at it can only have two different outcomes.

Putting it to work

The
idea is to hook this new gadget up with other molecules — either copies of
itself or different compounds other scientists have invented. For instance,
researchers have created a host of machines just a molecule or so large over
the last decade or two — motors,
propellers, switches, elevators, sensors and so on. The new invention might
offer a way to control all those other compounds to work as a whole. Indeed,
Bandyopadhyay and his colleagues revealed they could hook up eight other such
"molecular
machines" to their invention, working together as if they were part of
a miniature factory.

This
invention could serve as the controlling element of complex assemblies of
molecular machines, Bandyopadhyay suggested. One future application for such assemblies
"could be in medical science," he told LiveScience. "Imagine taking assemblies of molecular machines
and inserting them into the blood, perhaps if you wanted to destroy a tumor
inside the body."

The
device currently is operated with an extremely sharp electrically conductive
needle — specifically, that belonging to a scanning tunneling microscope, a
bulky machine far larger than the 17 molecules in question. However,
Bandyopadhyay hopes that in the future they can issue commands to their
invention using molecules that deliver electric pulses instead.

The
device needs to be made in vacuum conditions at extremely cold temperatures —
about -321 degrees F (-196 degrees C). Bandyopadhyay said it could be operated
at room temperature, however.

More powerful still

Bandyopadhyay
added they could expand their device from a two-dimensional ring of 16
duroquinones around the center to a three-dimensional sphere of 1,024
duroquinones. This means it could perform 1,024 instructions at once, for
4^1024 different outcomes — a number larger than a 1 with 1,000 zeroes after
it. They would control the molecule at the center of the sphere by manipulating
"handles" sticking out from the core.

Charles Q. Choi is a contributing writer for Live Science and Space.com. He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida. Charles has visited every continent on Earth, drinking rancid yak butter tea in Lhasa, snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos and even climbing an iceberg in Antarctica.